Thanks to Chuck Johnson's post on Facebook
Lou Holtz Nails It!!
The
Democrats are right, there are two Americas. The America that works and the
America that doesn’t. The America that contributes and the America that
doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts.
Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves,
contribute to society and others don’t. That’s the divide in America.
It’s not
about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a
political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win
elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it
loves its country.
That’s not
invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.
The politics
of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged
the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.” He noted that some people
make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others,
and he says that’s not just. That is the rationale of thievery.
The other
guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the
philosophy that produced Detroit.
It is the
electoral philosophy that is destroying America. It conceals a fundamental
deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not
benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.
The
Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a
culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of
ability and hope. The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality
by debasing the successful–seeks to deny the successful the consequences of
their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.
Because, by and large, income variations in society are a result of different
choices leading to different consequences.
Those who
choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while
those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of
failure.
Success and
failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income. You choose
to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a
different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful
education.
You have
your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them
within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life
our destination is determined by the course we take.
My doctor,
for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality
between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also
have had an in equality of effort. While my doctor went to college and then
devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a
restaurant. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to
different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine. Does that mean he
cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth? No, it means we are
both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.
It is not
inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to
succeed, and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there
is no true option for failure. The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less
when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more
happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did
nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and short
sighted decisions.
Barack
Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely
ignoring inequality of effort.
The simple
Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as,
“The harder you work, the more you get.”
Obama would
turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of
society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society. Entitlement
will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack
Obama gets his way. He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the
government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through
mediocrity. He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is
based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America
is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the
differences in our efforts.
It is a false
philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of
another man’s victimization.
What Obama
offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented division and strife,
pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.
That’s what socialists offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two
Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a
house divided against itself cannot stand.
“Life is
ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
Lou Holtz
Leo “Lou” Holtz (born January 6,
1937) is a retired American football coach, and active sportscaster, author,
and motivational speaker.
